Joseph Michael Anderson

I'm not that far, hopefully i can help.  I'll purple-msg you with contact info.

Also, are they concerned about the need to maintain it, or that free food will attract prodigal sons, ...

one last thought about topos.....

On my property at least,  the topos are smooth and suggest my hill is like an upside down soup bowl.  my hill is actually like a hand palm down on a table.  Maybe the tree canopy is deceptive or the map makers resolution is such that only a few points establish the contour but.... there is no substitue for walking the property to know the true lay of the land.

Also websoilsurvey   from USGS is awesome.

I 2nd the vote for sketchup.  Building, planning, using layers to track current and future use... its great.  you can import images of a property from your county assessor or other geographical information systems to get boundaries, hazard areas, etc.

I havent done "make a topo,into 3d"

Google earth can also have images projected onto its surfaces, so you can make the topography display other maps like annual rainfall or wetlands etc.... the resolution is such that they aren't great for a homestead,map but for searching for new land, it can be useful.

I did lots of googling 'how to,do X in sketch up or how to get google earth to do Y" to use those software packages, since the tutorials didn't cover what i wanted to do with them.

Another benefit of the curtain system stephanie speaks of above is that they can be cleaned or replaced easily and drawn back for light in the day or privacy at night.  Also what climate is this,van being prepared for?

I'm halfway in the opposite direction: nearly everything i have is electric, though i do have handtool backups (have you used a hand-drill ugh it is a pain).  I avoid combustion.  

My reasoning:  i have solar panels, a neighbor has a propane generator,  you can use priuses as gasoline generators if you void the warrantee and really have to (there are two in the neighborhood) someone on the next hill has wind (though it might be mechanical), our grid is hydroelectric.  I'd bet someone has a diesel gen if i asked.  Ifi  need power for the electric car, or to charge my chainsaw or run a well pump, we could make it happen.

No one has an oil derick. No one has a cracking distillation column for refining to a set boiling point.
Gas cars depend 100% on the outside world.  

All the biodiesel and,woodgas setups ive seen online have not convinved me that they make a consistent product that would bork an engine, or, more importantly that they are safe to operate long term and at volume as more than a demonstration project.  I saw a girl get engulfed in a fireball when she was refluxing ether with sodium in a stil approved for that process in a lab hood with an extinguisher not more than 5 feet away.  Unrecognizable.

Combustion is a wild animal.

Hand tools?  when they break no one i know has a forge.  I guess you could make charcoal and bellows and try to use scrap metal... all the welding rigs that can do more than braze take materials that would be hard to replace in a pinch.

do electric things break? They sure do.  Will i have soldier and,the right capacitors,and resistors in the apocalypse.... eh, probably not.  

In small spaces, you will want many airchanges per hour worth of ventilation to avoid buildup of co2 and other human and building material gases.  To do this and maintain a desired temperature range inside the van, you'll want a heat exchanger.  if your intake pipe,is 3in duct run inside a 4in duct exhaust line for the length of the van, that would do.Ts to split the inner and outer ducts and then put your intakes and exhaust at oppsite corners.  both inside the van and outside it. Keep your fresh air intake as far from the engine exhaust pipe as possible and have a good Carbon monoxide alarm.  

You are a hot moist ball of meat, the van is a big metal heat-sink just waiting to condense all that water.  You need a moisture tight barrier between you and the metal. Plastic,drop clothes,work.

you want a durable surface between you and the plastic... wood paneling, plastic political signs, anything but cardboard is good here.  Between your vapor barrier and the van shell you want insulation.  Polyiso or polystyrene is best R per inch and you don't have much room for,thick layers.  i endorse 2 inches foamboard sealed with expanding foam as someone else said.

lastly,  make sure the roof,of,your,van,is rain tight and painted and sealed before you install all this.  Much harder to find and fix leaks after.

have fun.

This is the essence of politics and power:  1 group of private land owners wanting to control what a different group of private land-owners do on their private property and vice-versa.  One group wants to protect their environment from pesticides, the other from noisy smelly farming, one wants to protect their right to build sheds and outbuildings,  the other mcmansions.  One group protects their property value by requiring everything look upper-class bland english country home.  Another protects their property value by making it a working homestead with useful things scattered about.

who wins?  usually the ones with more money, because they can bribe or replace or sway the local officials, get excemptions from the rules and sick the local authorities on their poorer neighbors.  

It would take local community organizing and commitment to fight effectively to make a "mcmansion free zone" and then get enough clout to defend it as developers take you to court and go above you to the statehouse... I'm sure there,are communities who have succeeded in doing this, i just can't name,any off the top of my head.

obviously my fat fingers like hitting comma instead of the spacebar and i have a hard time hitting the "s".  My apologies to the type-editors who had to read my post above :)

I think its cool.

i wonder what the best way to drain the system if it needs maintenance or to winterize the home if going away for a while.

Perhaps the in-wall piping can be two horozontal runs interconnected by many vertical connections,  the verticals allow convection, the bottom run allows drainage.  

I also think you might want a way to regulate the system pressure, to keep it at ambient pressure, a long "chimney run" open,on top,could be,made.  If a cloaed system is more desireable a tank with a bladder.  Both the liquid and the pipes will change volume with the temperature but not at the same pace and to the same extent.  I'd guess system pressure would rise deapite pipe expansion.

How would you set a maximum temperature on the convection fluid (water or anti-freeze or,what not).  Is this fluid heated directly on the stove and at risk of boiling? or is,it,moving heat from hot,room?

I live in a 16x8x8 metal enclosed trailer:  if the metal sides and roof on your 'uhaul'ish trailer aren't leaking, you can save a lot of time, money and weight by keeping them and outfitting the interior instead of tearing them off and stick-building.  If its a question of looks, paint is cheaper than cedar shingles.  If the structure leaks bad, then sure, scrap the roof/walls.  

Weight is a big deal, it is easy to get heavy fast because traditional building techniques aren't focused on low weight, and if you are building this to move more than once a year a 1/4 mile you need to worry about shaking and vibration. Cross braces and lockbolts instead of nails, the weight and price ads up quick.  

I second what others say about finding the weight rating: vin tag, tire walls, any identifying model number and a call to the company.

also,  i love my cargo trailer home,  i definately say do this, just be aware of the extra planning it takes to calculate the weight before you buy and build.